Running on a hard Mondo track in hot and humid weather, similar to the conditions he endured at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1997 Athens world championships, Gebrselassie sustained blisters on his feet that left them raw and bleeding at the end of Tuesday's race.

``I felt it around the 10th lap,'' recalled Gebrselassie. ``It always happens when I run in this kind of weather.''

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, his Dutch manager Jos Hermens watched as a sports doctor, Peter Vergouwen, tended to a circular wound on Gebrselassie's left foot where the skin had peeled away to expose raw flesh.

``It was worse in Atlanta,'' he said. ``At least this time, he doesn't have blisters on the underside of his feet. That's really bad.''

Gebrselassie appeared as concerned about the inconvenience he was causing Vergouwen as he was about the injury. ``I am sorry, we are interrupting you at night,'' Gebrselassie said, more than once in the Macarena Hotel serving as Vergouwen's office.

When Vergouwen asked Gebrselassie if he intended running the next day, the Ethiopian replied that he would.

``For...?'' asked Vergouwen.

``About 30 minutes,'' replied Gebrselassie adding: ``Well, I have to warm up. I am flying early Thursday morning.''

Gebrselassie's main workouts during the preceding week had taken place in the mornings, before the hot Spanish sun began to take its toll, and he was already concerned about missing that Thursday session. Hermens and Vergouwen finally convinced Gebrselassie he could afford to rest on Wednesday and lose a day of training.

He agreed, reluctantly, giving a glimpse of the determination that has helped carry him from the life of an eager young boy running barefoot in the hills of Ethiopia to that of a multiple world record-holder.

But when Vergouwen, working to bandage the wound and periodically asking his patient how it felt, fitted it Gebrselassie's satisfaction, the Ethiopian responded by saying: ``''Now it's perfect,'' and then quickly added: ``Now I can run!''

Both Hermens and Vergouwen laughed, but Gebrselassie was only half-joking.

At a news conference later on Wednesday, Hermens explained that Gebrselassie's condition over the following week would determine his fitness for his scheduled Golden League meeting scheduled for Brussels on September 3. The blisters had followed an Achilles' tendon injury Gebrselassie had already been experiencing in his right foot.

Walking gingerly and clad in open-toed sandals, Gebrselassie said he was still in pain. ``It wasn't unexpected, with this kind of heat,'' he said.

Asked where he could be found on the afternoon of his last day in Seville before flying to his European base in the Netherlands, Gebrselassie did not hesitate.

The twice world cross country champion crossed the line in a championship record 30 minutes 24.56 seconds, the fourth fastest time ever.

``The race was extremely tough, it was very hot out there. But I was confident of my kick and counting on going past the other girls,'' Wami commented.

Briton Radcliffe, who was beaten in similar fashion by Wami at the world cross country championships in March, led for much of the race but again was found wanting for finishing speed when the gold medal was decided and had no response when Wami stepped on the accelerator with 200 meters to go.

Although the finish had a sense of history repeating itself, it was also the climax of an enthralling race conducted for the most part between three runners.

Radcliffe had decided beforehand that the only way to win the race was to set a brutal pace from the gun and hopefully pull the sting from the rest of the competitors.

The Briton passed through the halfway point in 15:25.24 and then surged again, increasing the tempo.

All the other chasing women were shaken off, except for Wami and Kenya's Tegla Loroupe. Loroupe, the holder of the women's world marathon best, briefly took the lead with 11 laps to go but before long it was Radcliffe who was back in front.

With barely three laps to go Loroupe again tested Wami and Radcliffe but it was to be a another brief bid for glory and the honors eventually went to Loroupe's East African neighbor.

Wami, based in the Netherlands with men's 10,000 champion Haile Gebrselassie when she is racing in Europe, has waited a long time to climb the on the women's 10,000 medal podium at the world championships.

In 1995 she was 18th and last in the final while two years ago in Athens she pulled a muscle in the final and limped agonizingly to the side of the track.

Despite her prowess at cross country, Wami's best performance on the track before Thursday was an Atlanta Olympic bronze medal.

Radcliffe had the mild consolation of setting a national record of 30:27.13 despite having to settle for a world championship silver medal behind Wami for the second time in less than six months. ``When she went past me I thought 'Oh no not again,' Radcliffe said.

She said she had been inspired to throw down the gauntlet to the 30-strong field by the victory of her compatriot Liz McColgan, who won the 1991 world championship 10,000 with an audacious run from the front.

Loroupe finished third in a national record of 30:32.03 but wasted little time in criticizing Wami for failing to help out with the pace at any stage in the race.

``It's supposed to be a friendly race although I have to give her credit for winning. Her victory will help African women everywhere, we don't get enough support,'' Loroupe said.

Loroupe will return to her specialist event soon. She bids to become the first woman to run under two hours 20 minutes for the marathon at the Berlin Marathon on September 26.

In a confused finish, after the medallists had come home, several runners were eventually listed as 'did not finish' after stopping running a lap too early.

The 1997 champion retained her title with a devastating sprint 200 metres from the line to finish in a championship record of 14 minutes 41.82 seconds.

Once more Ouaziz had to settle for second place, just as she has done in most of their encounters on the international circuit this season and also in the world indoor championship 3,000 this year.

The pair still hugged each other beyond the finish line and embarked on a lap of honour together. There was no resentment from Ouaziz that again she got the silver medal despite making most of the pace.

``I'm not sad, actually I'm very happy that I got a medal. I knew I had given 100 percent so I knew that Gabriela had given 100 per cent to beat me,'' Ouaziz said.

``Going into the final lap I knew it was going to be very difficult to beat Gabriela but I knew that I was going to be at least second.''

The pair regularly train together at the Moroccan altitude training centre in Ifrane in the Atlas mountains but Szabo may have got the better deal.

``Ouaziz is a very good athlete but I know her tactics. So I plan to go very fast on the final lap sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, I'm not a machine,'' Szabo said.

``In my mind I just told myself that I would run fast tonight. However it was so fast that I became a little concerned but I remained sure of my ability.''

Ouaziz led for much of the early part of the race and and through the halfway point.

Her surge in the middle of the race had the effect of opening up a gap with herself, Szabo and Ethiopia's Ayelech Worku pulling away from the rest of the field.

Szabo took over the lead for several laps but with just a kilometre to go Ouaziz again tried to get the better of her European rival.

However it was all to no avail as Szabo unleashed her familiar sprint finish on the last lap and breasted the tape ahead of her regular sparring partner.

Ouaziz finished in 14:43.15 while Worku, who was grimmacing with the exertion throughout the latter stages of the race and contributed little to the pace, never getting in front of the two front runners, was rewarded with a personal best of 14:44.22 and the bronze medal.

The Romanian winner said that she had drawn inspiration from Worku's compatriot, the incomparable Haile Gebrselassie, who won his fourth consecutive men's 10,000 title on Tuesday.

``I am managed by the same people that look after Haile. I see how he runs, so free and confident, and this encourages me to do the same when I race,'' Szabo said.

However even though she only 23, Szabo has indicated the end of the road may be near.

``I hope after the Olympics I will run two, three or four years and then stop because that will be enough. It is difficult for me to stay in training camps all the time and not to have my family, not to have anything else,'' Szabo lamented, suggesting that she has paid a heavy emotional price for her world championship gold medals.